- The SEC dropped its appeal against Ripple on Wednesday.
- The dismissal makes it more likely that the regulator will approve new ETFs, Bloomberg analyst says.
- The regulator has until October to approve XRP ETFs.
The chances of an XRP exchange-traded fund being approved surged after the Securities and Exchange Commission dropped its case against Ripple, which developed the token to facilitate cross-border payments.
Not only have bets on Polymarket pushed the chances of an approval to 84% from 77% on Wednesday, but analysts like Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Eric Balchunas also say the odds are improving.
“Honestly, based on how the SEC has dropped all these lawsuits — and I heard the one with Ripple is pretty much being negotiated now — once those get dropped, the security thing doesn’t mean anything,” Balchunas said on the Roundtable podcast in an interview that seemed to be filmed before Ripple’s announcement on Wednesday.
In December, Balchunas had its chances placed around 65%.
The comments come as the buzz around the smattering of ETF applications for altcoins like Solana, Doge and XRP has increased since Donald Trump won the presidential election in November. He ran on a pro-crypto platform.
Since Trump took office, the SEC has dropped or halted cases against crypto companies like Kraken and Coinbase.
The SEC took the first major step towards an XRP ETF in February, when it acknowledged the Bitwise’s XRP ETF application.
This was a break from doctrine under the Biden era, where the SEC had rejected all applications.
The agency subsequently acknowledged two more, from 21Shares and Canary. Acknowledgement is the first step in the process of establishing an ETF.
“The likelihood of an XRP ETF approval is high,” Lucas Sorlini, product head at institutional crypto platform Northstake, told Inside Solana in February.
Ripple President Monica Long told Bloomberg News in January that she expected to see a spot XRP ETF “very soon.”
“We will see more various crypto spot ETFs coming out of the US,” she said “And I think XRP is likely to be next in line after Bitcoin” and Ethereum.
So-called whales have bought upwards of $1 billion worth of XRP in March, according to crypto analytics platform Santiment.
The SEC has until October to approve XRP applications, but Balchunas hinted that altcoin ETFs may become a reality even sooner.
“We’re not going to see anything before Atkins is confirmed and in the job for a little bit,” Balchunas continued. “So I would look for an interesting summer.”
Andrew Flanagan is a markets correspondent for Inside Solana. Have a tip? Reach out to aflanagan@dlnews.com.
